Quote 1
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter. (1.2.2)
- -When Brabantio confronts
Othello for eloping with Desdemona (without his permission), he accuses his new
son-in-law of being a "foul thief," as if Desdemona is piece of
property that has been unlawfully taken away from him. We see this same
attitude earlier in the play when Iago awakens Brabantio in the middle of the
night proclaiming loudly "Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves!
thieves! / Look to your house, your daughter and your bags! / Thieves!
thieves!" (1.1.7). What's up with that?
History Snack: It turns out that
it's pretty common in Shakespeare's plays (and sixteenth-to-seventeenth-century
England in general) for daughters to be considered their father's property –
unmarried women are often portrayed as something to be stolen, bartered for
and/or traded by men. In Taming of the Shrew, for example, when Baptista
Minola bargains with his daughter's suitor, he treats Bianca like a possession
and even refers to himself as a "merchant" who is undertaking a risky
business deal (Taming of the Shrew, 2.1.22).
Quote 2
Damn'd as thou art, thou hast
enchanted her;
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of
magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy,
So opposite to
marriage that she shunned
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever
have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such
a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross
in sense
That thou hast practised on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate
youth with drugs or minerals
That weaken motion: (1.2.2)
- -Brabantio insists that
Othello must have "enchanted" Desdemona – why else, asks Brabantio,
would she run away from all the (white) eligible bachelors in Venice into the
"sooty bosom" of the "Moor"? (Pretty obnoxious, wouldn't
you say?) Brabantio's objection to his daughter's marriage to a black man gives
voice to fears of miscegenation (when interracial couples marry/have sex, etc.,
resulting in "mixed race" children).
Quote 3
IAGO
I hate the Moor:
And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my
sheets
He has done my office: I know not if't be true;
But I, for mere
suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety. (1.3.12)
-We
discuss this passage in "Jealousy," but it's important to the theme
of "Marriage" as well. Here, Iago suggests that his wife, Emilia, has
cheated on him with Othello. Now, we know this is completely untrue. What we
don't know is whether or not Iago actually believes that Othello has
slept with Emilia. As we know, Iago lists multiple (and incompatible) motives
for seeking to destroy Othello (elsewhere, he says he hates Othello because he
was passed up for a promotion), so it's entirely possible that Iago's the one
who makes up the rumor about Othello and Emilia. On the other hand, most men in
the play assume that all women are promiscuous and unfaithful in general, so
it's not so surprising that Iago would believe Emilia has been untrue.
Quote 4
IAGO
She did deceive her father, marrying you;
[…]
OTHELLO
And so she
did. (3.3.18)
-When
Iago wants to make Othello suspect Desdemona's been unfaithful, he suggests a
woman who disobeys and "deceive[s] her father is likely to screw around on
her husband. Othello's response implies that he feels the same way. Instead of
seeing Desdemona's decision to elope with Othello (despite her father's
disapproval) as a sign of his wife's loyalty to him, Othello sees Desdemona's
willingness to elope as a prelude to her infidelity. It seems that Othello's
sexist assumptions leave him pretty vulnerable to Iago's plotting.
